India plans to export 10 million kg tea to Pakistan

KARACHI: India plans to triple tea sales to Pakistan by December to 10 million kg by offering internationally competitive prices, tea exporters said on Monday.
An Indian Tea Association trade delegation is visiting Pakistan to promote Indian tea in an attempt to secure a slice of Pakistan''s 140 million kg annual tea market.
"We have been exporting 3-3.5 million (kg) to Pakistan," Bharat Bajoria, head of Indian tea delegation, told reporters after a meeting with his Pakistani counterparts in Karachi.
"We are planning to increase our exports to 10 million kilos by December."
However, Pakistani traders have said India''s high tea prices and stiff competition from other producers were likely to thwart Indian chances of winning a large chunk of the market.
Indian tea producers are aware of Pakistani importers'' concerns about pricing and quality, and they were willing to offer competitive prices, Bajoria said.
"I don''t foresee any problem as far as quality is concerned," Bajoria said, adding Indian producers were willing to offer internationally competitive prices.
Bajoria did not agree with the assertions that their plan to increase tea exports to Pakistan to 10 million kg was ambitious.
"No, it is not ambitious. You are a very large market and if we export 10 million kilograms to Pakistan, we are talking about only six to seven percent of the total market share," he said.
"We are confident and we are ready to face competition."
Pakistani traders say Indian tea would face stiff competition from African leaves, which virtually dominate Pakistan''s market.
Kenya, Pakistan''s biggest tea supplier, accounted for 50 per cent of its legal tea imports, with African countries as a whole supplying 72 per cent.
Pakistan also buys tea from Bangladesh, Indonesia and China.
It imported around 120 million kg of tea worth 12.6 billion rupees through legal channels during the fiscal year ending on Monday, while remaining demand of some 20 million kg was filled by smuggled tea.
Foreign tea blenders in Pakistan who also have a presence in India look to south Indian tea for mixing and blending.
Earlier this year, Pakistani business group Lakson and Tetley Tea, a British subsidiary of India''s largest tea producer Tata Tea, set up a tea blending plant near Karachi that will mainly use Sri Lankan, Kenya and Indian tea.